Unique Bosses

[lonequeso 1,921]

One of my favorite things about RPG's are the boss battles. I like them because generally, they're not something you can just spam the same skills over and over to beat. They force the player to actually stop and think about what they're doing. This post is for those bosses. The well thought out ones that

require more than "attack "attack" "heal" "attack"  Repeat. 

 

I'm curious to see what unique challenging bosses people have come up with. I'm working out the fine details of one myself atm the moment, too. I'll show you mine, and you can show me yours.....

 

...that came out all wrong 

 

NOTE: At this point in the game the player will have 10 actors in the party and can switch them in battle. There's a five turn cool down before they can switch again so they have to be cautious. 

 

I was having some fun recently with some of Thazlon's Battlers. He was some Goos, basically bigger slime that have some facial features (eyes, mouths, etc.) He has a "Goo King" that I'm using for a boss. He is surrounded by his loyal subjects: 

 

                                  2 "Goo Knights"   2 "Goo Mages"   2 regular "Goos"

 

They are fiercely loyal. The very first turn the King uses a skill that gives the knights and regular Goos a special cover status using Hime's Cover Conditions. They cover only the King regardless of his HP. 

 

So to get to the King, you have to eliminate the 4 enemies covering him first. This is easier said than done, of course. All the Goos in general aren't particularly hard to kill. By the time the player gets to the fight, they should know some of their elemental weaknesses/resistances thanks to the Ace Battle Engine. Problem is, the regular Goos can heal their allies. The King can also fully revive dead allies, and can and will use his special "Cover" skill throughout the battle after "X" turns. I'm going to have it so he does that only 1/3 of the time when an enemy is dead. Otherwise, it'd likely be damn near impossible to win w/out leveling waaayy up. The King also likes to buff his and his subjects' DEF and MDF. The Mages can silence the player's party, too.

Fun fun 

 

But wait! There's more!

 

After the fifth turn the King summons his "Court Jester Goo." Yep you read that right   I'm playing with his specific skills/parameters atm. Stat wise he's fairly weak, but he is very hard to hit with magic or physical attacks and almost impossible to crit. He won't Cover the King. He does use a fun Provoke state I made. It works like Confuse, but the Restriction is set to "attack an enemy" It also puts "Provoke" on the Jester, so the afflicted will be more likely to target it. He probably won't have any damaging skills, maybe just the basic "Attack" skill so he's not spamming debuff and status conditions.

 

There's lots of obstacles to stop the player from damaging the King. While the player is dealing with them in the early turns, they are sure to notice the King heals HP and MP every turn. HE is vulnerable to two different damage over time states to counter that. Even after you eliminate his defenses, he can revive allies, so you have to be ready to eliminate the ones that can Cover him again. Devious, no? 

 

The most fun part of this is the complete lack of backstory I provide the Goos. I want to have a very fantastical feel with it. I offer no explanation to how this society of Goos came to be or why they live in the cave they live in. All they player knows is for some reason they're protecting the mineral you're trying to collect. And that's after the battle. It's all up to the player's own imagination 

 

How'd ya like it? I can't wait to hear some other people's ideas.

Edited September 22, 2015 by lonequeso

[Omen613 8]

I like that the enemies have their own strategy

 

but I personally feel that you have a lot going on all at once. A full enemy party of 8 counting the jester and the king that revives fallen enemies is a lot for the player to monitor (assuming your player party isn't packing super powerful target all foe skills to just mow down the slimes)

 

I'd suggest cutting that number down. King. Healer, Jester, Tank(with cover state), and Jester. So they would have to take out the healer first, then the tank, then beat down the king until he revives the healer and the knight again. Or could make him revive random pairs like 

 

Tank Tank

Healer Healer

Tank Healer

 

can all be done without scripts (besides the cover script your mentioned)

 

either way the player has to take out his minions before he can really start hurting the king jelly. and the jester can just be a pest throwing out status conditions. he could be dealt with if the player choices to focus on him but due to his evasion its not gonna be easy so most likely just deal with the debuffs he tosses out every X turn to one unfortunate player character.

 

Good luck on your game. 

 

**minor edits

Edited September 22, 2015 by Omen613

[Guyver 65]

You should give the jester an annoying status that slows the party down and reduces their evasion and really make him the bane of everyones existence. That's just me though, I like to torture people with status effects way too much.

[lonequeso 1,921]

Yes, there's a ton going on. I'm still tweaking all the parameters. There are several people who can exploit the slime's weaknesses with "target alls", and the player will likely have a couple "certain hit" skills for the Jester. Remember, the player has 10 characters to work with, too. Some healing skills are going to be able to remove "Provoked" as well as at least one common healing item.

[Szyu 52]

Am I the only one that still likes the annoying puzzle bosses most?

Those little b***ards that can only be beaten if carefully prepared and can only be killed of certain conditions are triggered during the fight... Those a the true bosses!

 

Oh.. and of course Big Boss

[Nekotori 739]

My unique boss is just a single female psychopatic gunner~ She has 7 personalities which also dictates what attacks and attributes she has.

 

Her mechanic involves around the 7 deadly sins, she sometimes talk to the player and this dialogue determines her current deadly sin, each sin has its own weakness, strengths, and attack pattern.

 

Let's say her Pride Phase involves inflicting the party a ton of damage over time states then at the end before she changes her deadly sin, she uses a skill that gains a massive damage boost when you are still under the effects of the damage over time state. Her pride phase is weak to swords but highly resistant to spears

 

Then her Lust Phase involves skill chaining, making her skills deal increased damage for each consecutive skill she uses against a target.

 

Ofcourse having to adapt and read her moves in all her 7 phases makes this a tough fight~

[Guyver 65]

My unique boss is just a single female psychopatic gunner~ She has 7 personalities which also dictates what attacks and attributes she has.

 

Her mechanic involves around the 7 deadly sins, she sometimes talk to the player and this dialogue determines her current deadly sin, each sin has its own weakness, strengths, and attack pattern.

 

Let's say her Pride Phase involves inflicting the party a ton of damage over time states then at the end before she changes her deadly sin, she uses a skill that gains a massive damage boost when you are still under the effects of the damage over time state. Her pride phase is weak to swords but highly resistant to spears

 

Then her Lust Phase involves skill chaining, making her skills deal increased damage for each consecutive skill she uses against a target.

 

Ofcourse having to adapt and read her moves in all her 7 phases makes this a tough fight~

 

I did the same thing for one of my bosses who is also a gunner

[Adventurer_inc. 9]

My most difficult boss is the final boss who has only 3 attacks: magic, range, and melee, but gains 1 random positive state per turn (they last 3-5 turns each). There are 20 of them and some of them affects attacks elements and state.

 

In a tactic game, the most difficult boss is the one you can't possibly prepare for.

[lonequeso 1,921]

@Szyu-  I have mixed feelings about puzzles bosses. I love having to figure out how to defeat them, but typically after you do that, the boss is stupidly easy. There have only been a few bosses like that I've seen in games where you not only had to figure out the strategy,  but the boss was really good at screwing your attempts to use it up. Those are the extremely tough bosses that I love.

 

@Kotori-chan-  I love that for two reasons. One, you have a schizophrenic psychopath as a boss. Being half-insane myself, I gravitate towards characters like that.

Two, you used dialogue in game to determine how the boss fights. That's really unique. I'm sure elsewhere in the infinite sea of video games some else has done it, but I don't recall ever encountering a boss just like that. On top of that, she has 7 different "modes" making her hard to plan for. Nice work! Now I wanna have a schizo in my game...

 

@Adventurer_inc-  20 different states? That is so evil!   It really forces the player to use every single skill/item at their disposal. Spam skills ain't gonna cut against that boss. Very cool!

[Guyver 65]

I have a few unique bosses in my game, while there are a few that are straight beat 'em ups, I try to incorporate some strategies into the rest of them.

 

One of them being a double boss battle where one is a melee fighter and the other is a caster. You can't physically damage the fighter type, and are forced to use magic and you have to attack the caster physically. Meanwhile they're attacking you on both fronts and it forces you to split your attention. While not too clever or original, it adds some spice to the line of boss battles you fight up until that point.

 

Branching off from the double boss battle, I have another one that modulates its resistances. You'll never know what attack will hurt him or heal him in the next around without scanning him to see the icon which clears every time it changes.

 

Another boss I have is a sidequest one with pylons in the battle. The two pylons take a lot of damage and should be focused on since one provides buffs and heals to the boss and the other debuffs your party and is a huge pain in the ass.

 

The last one I'm going to share is a group of human enemies. There's five of them, two are shield knights, one is a caster, another is a healer and the last is the boss. The boss is immune to damage until everything else is dead. The shield knights prevent damage to the caster and healer, so you have to take them out first before you can damage them. After the healer and caster are dead the boss will start attacking and it's a free for all after that.

 

Not the most inventive, but it does beat the normal attack heal attack pattern.

[Mysticphoenix 8]

My unique boss can create a clone when the player shoot bullet at her, and teleport her somewhere else. The clones cannot be distinguished unless use a special item, which will make the clones change color.

[lonequeso 1,921]

Ahhh.... The multi-clones. The nostalgia is flowing through me 

 

I finished setting up my Goo King and his subjects. I'll probably have to make the Goos stronger, but I won't know until I actually play through my game to see about where the player's level should be. Needed 3 custom scripts for one boss. 

[zebaroth 6]

the one boss in a game that needs to be the most unique is the final boss he/she/it is after the most poweefule thing in

the game and is the one thing that will destroy the world if not defeated

[devonm0 37]

I have two bosses in my game so far that I would call 'different'.  The first is called Thermos, and it has a fire form and an ice form.  Although the obvious point that the ice form is weak to fire and vice versa is true, in this battle there's a twist.  There is an accessory that is given to you just for the battle, called the Osmosis Pin.  It is able to absorb energy that Thermos discharges in response to a personal emergency.  What do I mean by that?  Well the idea of the battle is to make Thermos yo-yo back and forth between fire and ice by using fire magic on his fire form until he gets too hot, and ice magic on his ice form until he gets too cold.  He will then perform a violent attack where he discharges all his hot or cold build up as appropriate energy this is what the Osmosis Pin can absorb. The energy then becomes able to be used by the Pin's wearer, who can fire it at the now opposite enement Thermos, dealing damage.  This is the only way to damage him.

 

The second boss I'm speaking of starts off normally enough, but not long into the battle he summons a stronger version of a past boss and puts up an impnetrable barrier that automatically comes down when the summon is beaten.  That's really all there is too this one, unless you count the fact that the boss continues to attack alongside his summoned ally while hiding behind his shield.

[lonequeso 1,921]

the one boss in a game that needs to be the most unique is the final boss he/she/it is after the most poweefule thing in

the game and is the one thing that will destroy the world if not defeated

I'm not far enough to plan my final boss in too much detail. He's going to be a two-stager. He's probably going to have a mix of status/debuff and drain skills as well something that can insta-kill.

 

 

I have two bosses in my game so far that I would call 'different'.  The first is called Thermos, and it has a fire form and an ice form.  Although the obvious point that the ice form is weak to fire and vice versa is true, in this battle there's a twist.  There is an accessory that is given to you just for the battle, called the Osmosis Pin.  It is able to absorb energy that Thermos discharges in response to a personal emergency.  What do I mean by that?  Well the idea of the battle is to make Thermos yo-yo back and forth between fire and ice by using fire magic on his fire form until he gets too hot, and ice magic on his ice form until he gets too cold.  He will then perform a violent attack where he discharges all his hot or cold build up as appropriate energy this is what the Osmosis Pin can absorb. The energy then becomes able to be used by the Pin's wearer, who can fire it at the now opposite enement Thermos, dealing damage.  This is the only way to damage him.

 

The second boss I'm speaking of starts off normally enough, but not long into the battle he summons a stronger version of a past boss and puts up an impnetrable barrier that automatically comes down when the summon is beaten.  That's really all there is too this one, unless you count the fact that the boss continues to attack alongside his summoned ally while hiding behind his shield.

I really like that first boss  You don't see bosses like that very often. It's a fun and different way to battle. Anything that makes the player think about their actions instead of spamming skills is great in my book. I have a boss that puts up a barrier, too. There's a special skill the player acquires during the first part of the battle that will bring it down. The catch is the skill requires TP to use. If you don't have enough, you have to play defense until it can be used. The boss can also will regenerate the shield periodically. 

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

I just got for the typical RPG boss style.

 

My side/optional bosses will mainly be bigger versions of random enemies in that dungeon, so say a giant Slime King appears, he'd be a bigger slime with maybe a few normal slimes to protect him.

The main difference between the boss slime and normal slimes will be stats and a varied move set. You can't spam due to teh fact your stats aren't majorly high. If you have 20MP, you cant spam heal since you dont have enough mana and money isnt easy to get in my game so buying in bulk isnt much of an option.

 

Your actors can learn moves such as elemental attacks (certain slimes are weak to certain elements) and some melee fighters get a "Slime Slayer" skill that deals damage to slimes.

Thing is, the slimes have high DEF so simply attack spamming them doesnt work and since bosses have alot higher attack than normal enemies, they'll hit you hard before you even dent them.

 

The dragon boss later in game will be fun since he has major stats xD

 

Oh, and the undead bosses will be uber fun since they resist a lot of status ailments and have high DEF, MDEF and ATK (but low AGI)

[lonequeso 1,921]

We have similar taste in bosses   I remember you mentioning some skills require gold to use. Interesting twist. A have a mental image of the main character panhandling in a city so they can get enough gold to complete a dungeon 

 

 

I really love Slime Kings. It implies that the slimes have sort of government-maybe even a social hierarchy. That leads to all sorts of other questions. I decided to leave it to the player's imagination. I'd love to see someone do in-depth about slime society *hint* *hint* 

 

The King and his subjects have varied moves which is good. Are there different types of slimes in the battle, too?

 

I'm going to have at least two dragons in my game. The first one is an earlier boss, so it's pretty straightforward. You can spam it to a certain extent. The next one will be tougher.

 

I got a couple undead one's, too. They are fun to make. Like the dragon, one is earlier so more straightforward, but he summons a sandstorm in the beginning of the battle that damages the party every turn. He can also inflict Curse which deals damage every turn and cuts the victim's LUK in half. It doesn't go away over time, either.

 

The other is a Spectre that switches it's elemental strengths/weaknesses which also affect his stats. He's pretty tough. He beat me a couple times while I was play testing 

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

Haha yea. My game doesnt give you gold drops, but it does contain a crafting system so monsters will drop materials that you can craft, level up that skill, unlock more things to make and then get more materials to craft some more.

You can sell your materials or crafted items to make money, but I intend to have currency actually have value in game.

You can buy or craft your own gear if you wish

 

You can encounter normal slimes and later in game there will be elemental slimes. The slimes are absorbant and jelly so physical attacks done do much on them, but most of them will be an elemental weakness so you can counter there high DEF with attacking there low MDEF. Of course though, the slimes will vary throughout the game so yep.

 

I was actually working on a unique race type of enemies, that in concept look similar to the heartless from Kingdom Hearts but bigger (not intentionally though). The backstory so far is they live in dark caves and shadows and mug any passerbys of their possessions. Over time, they started adapting slightly to various items they stole, such as swords or staves and gradually became adept at using them. This brings about the mage, rouges and soldiers of that race. Imagine cute shadow critters trying to use weapons, thats basically there concept. It's also a WIP.

 

The dragons will also have some elemental types amoung them. Snow region dragons will have icy breaths and weak to fire since they arent used to heat, where as fire dragons on volcanoes will be weak to water since they need to stay hot to use there attacks and its essentially their body temperature. You will have normal dragons too, just basic ones, but its nice to vary them up. I have a Dark dragon and a Queen/King dragon idea pending for them later

 

My zombie enemies can all inflict poison, plague (basically poison, but this one isnt curable unless KO'd) and zombie (the infamous, healing hurts you state).

I'll have various undead enemies throughout the game including humanoids, dragons, animals and a few other things that can hurt you. better get that herblore skill up so you can cure those ailments

 

All my bosses are gonna be resistant to various stats such as insta-death and being made to flee (of course), but not all bosses will be immune to all ailments ;P

That Slime King might just be poisonable, but maybe he doesnt like you doing so and instead sits on you until you crushed to death.

 

I intend to add a few cameos into my game via NPC's and enemies, so who knows, maybe my Dragon Overlord will be a orange dragon with spikey yellow hair ;P

Maybe one of the horses will speak and actually turn out to be a pony in disguise.

Maybe I'll have a certain red head run the food store/cafe so you can buy materials.

The cameos are real~

[lonequeso 1,921]

I like the idea for the shadow creatures. There's a wide array of enemies you can make just with them. Just pictured the boss being able switch weapon types which changes his skills 

 

The zombie are very zombie-like. I don't have the Zombie state, but I have one literally called a Plague Zombie  A very insane necromancer raised the dead in a mass grave (catacombs) that had died from a plague. I have a few shades/ghosts, no undead animals as of yet. Doesn't really fit into my game. A necromancer would have to re-animate them. I like the undead dragon idea. Dragons are tough enough when they're alive.

 

I'll have a few elemental dragons. Dragons are a rarity so there won't be too many different ones.

 

Bosses generally should be resistant to status effects. Sometimes I make them vulnerable to one or two. The Spectre I mentioned earlier regenerates HP every turn so I made it poisonable to help counter it. My bosses are also either immune or resistant to debuffs. I usually set the params to 50%.

 

I think your game absolutely must have Super Saiyan Charizard. I mean without him, why bother? 

Riki would be a fun boss. He'd Charm you with rainbows.

Tsarmina should be a mage that has the power to BANish you.

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Like them cameos xD

 

All my bosses are uniqe exept for the first one.

 

I'm currently working on a pain in the ass boss!

 

It is a ghost of sorts that uses a skill called "Posses"

 

Posses: Converts 1 actor from your party to fight for him (all skills at his disposal), you now have to fight and kill your partymember before you can continue to fight the boss.

This was a b?#¤h to set up. I figured pissing the player of more than a simple Death state!

 

When not in possesed mode it changes its elemental weakness every turn. It may or may not give it up by casting a powerful AoE elemental magic prior to changeing to that element.

It is also likely to inflict (paralysis) lasting for three turns. Say this happens to your main elemental damage dealer. It is a pain to just play test <.<

 

His elemental weakness is the standard 100% all others 10%, it is tough to kill, to say the least.

 

This is an example of the bosses i make. Bosses to me are an exuse to torment the player <== this is why i think people wont like to play my games xD

Edited October 5, 2015 by Zhakrissto

[lonequeso 1,921]

I like tough bosses. I'm going to have at least tone boss the can Charm you, I actually want it to be similar your "Possess" skill.How'd you set it up?

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Using 2 scripts:

 

Banish http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/7540-banish/

and

Summon http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/24089-pets-and-summons/

 

And some serious eventing! Storing Hp and Mp as variables. So yes the character uses up their Mp as they are fighting you (just for extra suckiness), then returned dead.

This is not for the faint of heart. It took me a tonne of time <.<

 

Edit: There has got to be a better way!!!!

Edited October 5, 2015 by Zhakrissto

[lonequeso 1,921]

Ah, okay. So actually turned an actor into a full-fledged battler. Very cool!

I can see that being a pain to set up. I wish there was a state restriction that allowed an actor to "attack an ally" with their learned skills.

That'd be incredibly hard and time consuming ot set up the way my skills are learned. Skills can be mastered can therefore transferred when the character's class changes. I'd need to make note tags or a very long troop event for every single variable I have to check if a skill is mastered. (shudders)

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Ah, okay. So actually turned an actor into a full-fledged battler. Very cool!

I can see that being a pain to set up. I wish there was a state restriction that allowed an actor to "attack an ally" with their learned skills.

That'd be incredibly hard and time consuming ot set up the way my skills are learned. Skills can be mastered can therefore transferred when the character's class changes. I'd need to make note tags or a very long troop event for every single variable I have to check if a skill is mastered. (shudders)

Not an actor, ALL OF THEM!!! *cries*

 

Other wise you would have to fight the same actor no matter who was "possessed"

 

It seems like it could be worse for you. And yea alot of note tags for skills not learnd through lvling up is what i had to go through. It goes to show how dedicated i am in tormenting players in new and intresting ways!

(mostly my self tho, guesstimate 200 battle tests *shudders*)

[lonequeso 1,921]

For me a lot of the extra stuff would just be copy/paste. Still, too much work to put into a single boss for me. Just gonna hack your game and add yours. Whoops did just say that aloud?